ACT UP protest: Same old BS, twenty years later

NOTE: Images Copyright © 2007 Andrés Duque and Rex Wockner

About 400 t0 500 people showed up on a magnificently sunny day to act up once again on what was planned as the 20th year anniversary action of the organization ACT UP.

Larry Kramer, who was among the people who jump started the direct action group twenty years ago addressed reporters at the rally's start (YouTube video here). Clients from organizations such as Housing Works, African Services Committee, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, the New York City AIDS Housing Network, People of Color in Crisis and GMHC joined the crowd. There was also a large contingent from ACT UP Philadelphia.

The well-behaved crowd shouted slogans such as "No more bullshit, health care for all," "Health care for people, not for profit" and "Same old bullshit, 20 years later."

Marchers made their way from the Federal Building down to City Hall with a stop at Trinity Church (just off the World Trade Center site) through the narrow building canyons in front of the New York Stock Exchange ending up at the big bull statue at Bowling Green, long a symbol of Wall Street.

Organizers threw plastic body bags in front of the statute, two ACT UP'ers also mounted the bull and flew a banner that read "ACT UP: Health care for all."

After addressing the crowd and reporters, a group of 20 to 25 activists crossed the police barriers surrounding the Bowling Green park and laid down on the street in a "die-in." They were arrested for disrupting traffic and are currently in custody.

When it was all said and done the bull was left standing alone with a pair of condoms adorning its horns.

Additional stuff:

• Lots of photos here
• Even more photos, from a Philadelphia ACT UP'er here (courtesy of Kaytee Riek)
  
• A video of marchers going past the New York Stock Exchange here
• Rex has his take on today's march here as well as commentary about ACT UP's past - including some archive photos - here
• Michael Petrelis: "Dozens 'Die-In' at san Francisco ACT UP/Gay Shame Action in the Castro"
• Castro Die-In Demands Housing for All (SF/Bay Area Independent Media Center)
• ACT UP marks 20 years with housing protest (San Francisco Chronicle)
  

Future meetings: According to a message left tonight on my voice mail by Andrew Velez, ACT UP will mark its anniversary with a $20 celebration/fundraiser on Saturday, March 31 at 8 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street.

There will also be a follow-up organizing meeting on Thursday, April 12th at 7:30PM - also at the LGBT Community Center - for the first ever meeting of the Queer Justice League (although the name of the group is subject to change). Questions should be directed at queerjusticeleague@gmail.com.

Coverage:

• ACT UP Roars Again at 20 (Andy Humm in Gay City News)
• ACT UP returns to Wall Street with a bang (POZ Magazine)
  
• El Diario La Prensa's Photo Gallery
  
• Still Acting Up Twenty Years Later (New York magazine's "The Intelligencer")
• Arrests Taking Place at ACT UP demo - Updated (Joe.My.God)
• ACT UP 20th Anniversary March (Queer on Paper)
  
• ACT-UP's 20th Anniversary March on Wall Street (Band of Thebes)

UPDATE: The official press release puts participation at "nearly a thousand" and arrests at 27. It also has a full list of co-sponsors.

So many protests, so little time: Garrison Keillor in NYC

So, somewhere among the e-mails received and sent this week, Rex passed along a tidbit from advice columnist Dan Savage saying that instead of protesting General Peter Pace, people should maybe be acting up against A Prairie's Home Companion's Garrison Keillor.

The reason? A column Keillor wrote for Salon.com this week available here in which he tackles, among other things, his supposedly humorous thoughts on gay parenting including the following:

And now gay marriage will produce a whole new string of hyphenated relatives. In addition to the ex-stepson and ex-in-laws and your wife's first husband's second wife, there now will be Bruce and Kevin's in-laws and Bruce's ex, Mark, and Mark's current partner, and I suppose we'll get used to it.

The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the kids. It's their show.

Savage failed to see the joke and shared his thoughts on why people should "Fuck Garrison Keillor" over on his blog (which then got noticed by Andrew Sullivan over on his blog).

And somewhere along the way, Savage's wish seemed to inspire real call for a protest at today's live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion here in New York at the Town Hall on 43rd Street off Sixth Avenue.

Problem is the call for a protest apparently never got to too many people cause it was just Gay USA anchor Andy Humm (pictured above outside the Town Hall earlier today) holding a sign that read "Garrison Keillor: Stop Slurring Gay Parents" on one side and "Boycott Prairie Home Anti-Gay Bigotry" on the other. He was also and handing a statement to the people in line for the show that read, in part:

Heterosexual people don't need any qualifications to become parents nor do they have to be married. And they don't need any qualifications to be married other than to be of different sexes.

But Garrison Keillor is so repelled by the idea of gay parents and same-sex marriage that he needs to employ trivializing stereotypes to put them down.

Bigotry like this is shameful and we hope the NPR audience will tell Keillor what they think of his prejudices.

A Keillor rep actually came out and handed Andy a printed copy of yet another post made on a blog, in this case, Keillor's own, in which he responds to the criticism this way.

I'm not sure that explains some of the cringe-worthy passages away even if it was an attempt at humor. He does have some defenders out there though.

So many blog posts, just one person protesting at the theatre. Some theatre goers at least were receptive to the statement that Andy was handing to them.

I guess some controversies are made for the blogosphere if not necessarily for outdoor demos.

Or perhaps they all were at that other queer protest today?

UPDATE: Rex on Keillor here.

ACT UP to General Pace: Your War is Immoral

It's been a while since I told a story in pictures. So here it goes:

Having followed the recent developments regarding the 20th anniversary of ACT UP but having yet to attend one of the planning meetings, this morning I headed over to the first of several demos being planned to mark the occasion. The reason behind it? General Peter Pace's recent comments to the Chicago Tribune in which he called homosexuality "immoral."

With home made-signs that read "Being gay is not immoral, being bigoted is," "Torture is Immoral, Love is Fabulous," "Pace = Hate," and "Don't Ask Don't Tell, General Pace Go to Hell," a lively and lovely crowd of about 200 to 250 people showed up to the protest following Larry Kramer's call to arms on Tuesday.

Kramer (top picture) was among the participants and at one point joined Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and National gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman in knocking on the door of the Times Square Armed Forces recruitment office (or "Career Center" as they call it), but they might have known that ACT UP would be showing up because the Center remained shut and no one was inside.

Rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker brought along a 100 foot flag that participants used to frame the protest and surround the recruitment center.

This was the same flag that Matt Foreman and Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum used at the end of the protest to stop traffic in an act of civil disobedience as they extended it across 7th Avenue. Mr. Foreman and Rabbi Kleinbaum were first warned by police officers and then quickly arrested after they sat down and would not budge.

The flag was also taken into custody.

As he promised after the Larry Kramer speech on Tuesday, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey also showed up (that's me next to him in the bottom pic). Actually, he was amongst the first to arrive and offered to pick up coffee for me at Starbucks, alas, by the time he got back from Starbucks the protest was in full swing. Gay City News and Gay USA reporter Andy Humm spent most of his time doing an extensive interview with the former Governor so expect a detailed report in the next issue of GCN.

ACT UP'ers seen: Andrew Velez (with a "Queer Tortilla" ACT UP shirt), Eric Rhein (who wore his gay uncle's army jacket), Ann Northrop and Eric Sawyer, among others.

As well as: Puerto Rico Para Tod@s Pedro Julio Serrano, Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto, political mavens Allen Roskoff and Alan Fleishman, cutie patootie retired detective (and former Gay Officers Action League president) Edgar Rodriguez, Sirius radio personality and author Michaelangelo Signorile, blogger Joe.My.God and some misplaced tourists who just loved all those rainbow flags and angry fags.

What other blogs are saying:

• Queer Justice League
• Rex Wockner (for whom I actually was "on assignment" today when I took the pics)
• Joe.My.God
• Towleroad
• Good As You
• Pam's House Blend
• The Mad Professor Lectures
• Miss Wild Thing
• Andrew Sullivan
• Gothamist
• It All Goes Here
• Radioactive Quill
• The Fifth Column
• The Stranger's SLOG
  

MANY, MANY MORE PICS AT MY FOTKI SITE. Please ask for permission before using.

COVERAGE:

• "American Gay Group ACT UP Resurrected as General Pace Targeted in New York" (UK Gay News)
• "Gay Rights Activists Protest Pace's Remarks" (NY1)
  

The Queer Justice League

The earth shook up a bit on Tuesday but I wonder if enough people noticed. Sure, in this blogging age you can certainly check what some thought about it.

Larry Kramer's latest speech at the standing-room only LGBT Center in commemoration of the 20th year anniversary of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) seems to be sending a few shock waves among those who were around during the seminal activist organization's glory days - and miss the good ol' direct action demonstrations that literally changed national and international policy on HIV/AIDS and saved or extended hundreds of lives. It might also be reverberating among a small group of nascent activists, including - hm - Jim McGreevey (!?).

The keepers of the flame, among them Eric Sawyer (pictured above), Ann Northrop and John Riley, had recently activated the ACT UP phone tree to gear up for the anniversary. An initial brainstorming meeting in January drew more than fifty people but the number had dwindled at recent meetings (the group had apparently had settled on "healthcare for all" as their main focus for their 20th anniversary action, which might be a laudable issue but not necessarily a sexy one).

The speech itself, christened "We are not crumbs, we must not accept crumbs" was pure Kramer if only a bit more hopeful than the last time he opened his mouth and chastised the gays (the less-well received "The Tragedy of Today's Gays" which he unveiled at Cooper Union on November 7, 2007).

You can read the text of both speeches at the above links but I'll point out that on Tuesday's speech Larry quoted Eric and said:

In the age of the internet we can do much of what we did in our meetings and on the streets, on the world wide web. The information technology available today could help end the need for those endless meetings. Creating a blog could, in fact, incorporate even more voices and varieties of opinions and ideas than any meeting ever could. Where ACT UP once had chapters in many cities, we could now involve thousands more via simple list-serves and blogs. We can draw in students and schools and colleges all over the world. It is the young we have to get to once again. Creating a blog would allow for expression and refinement of ideas and policies, like a Queer Justice League for denouncing our enemies. A well organized website could function as an electronic clearing house for sharing information, for posting problems, for demanding solutions, for developing and communicating action plans

My friend Rex actually has a link to the video of Larry Kramer's speech here as well as updates on upcoming ACT UP actions fed to him by Andy Humm here. But for up to the minute stuff you better keep your eye on the Queer Justice League. The Queer whats-a-magibit you say?

A new blog is born: Queer Justice League

Anyway, going back to McGreevey, does anyone else find it really funny that it took the former New Jersey Governor to try to get specifics from Larry? Left Behind, who was there, reflects on the moment and remembers "what it was like being a queer newbie, all excited about your first gay protest" as he more than welcomes McGreevy into the fold.

Photos: New Yorkers react to Gay Marriage Ruling

Angry thousands at Sheridan Square (on Christopher Street) this evening, speakers included New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Senator Thomas K. Duane, Congressman Anthony Weiner, State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, Assemblymember Dick Gottfried and State Attorney General candidates Sean P. Maloney (who brought along his partner and kids) and Mark Green.

Scenes from today's rally at Sheridan Square protesting this morning's New York State Court of Appeals Decision against the constitutionality of same-sex marriage rights in New York State. Full set of photos here.

Coverage from tomorrow's Gay City News:

• Andy Humm reports on today's rally.
• Editor in Chief Paul Schindler writes the editorial.
• New York Law School Professor Arthur S. Leonard (on my personal blog list on the right) analyzes the ruling.
• Associate Editor Duncan Osbourne on reaction from couples, gay advocates and political leaders.

And from tomorrow's New York Times: An editorial and coverage.

Also, a message I got tonight from Daniel and his partner Curtis on today's ruling (he's pictured above, third one from top):

Dear Friends,

As many of you may already, New York's highest court, the State Court of Appeals, rendered its decision this morning regarding our marriage case. In effect, they ruled that the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples was not a constitutional issue and determined that it was a matter for the legislature. The decision was 4 to 2.

Curtis and I are deeply saddened by the decision. While many are hopeful about continuing the fight in the legislature, we believe that our part in the struggle is coming to a close. Our next steps are more personal, be must now go about protecting our relationship as every other same-sex couple in New York State with a patchwork of very expensive legal contracts, wills and proxies. It also puts our desire to adopt children even further on the back burner. Now as it stands, we will have to separately adopt a child. We were hoping that if we won we would actually be able to afford adoption because married couples need only go through one adoption process.

We could go on about the matter, but it is the end of a very difficult day that we just want to be over. Thank you for your support.

Hugs,

Daniel and Curtis

A sad day indeed.

ps - Lavi has more here and pictures here as well (spot me!)
pps - Good as You has video of some of the speakers at the rally here

Dwan Prince goes home

Back in September, when I posted a series of entries on my thoughts on the 4th year anniversary of the murder of Eddie Garzon, I finished by trying to draw attention to other violent attacks against people in the community, most of which also received limited coverage by mainstream media - including Dwan Prince, who was beaten up into a coma on June 9th in Brooklyn by three men who did not like the fact he was gay.

A local news blurb by Andy Humm in this week's Gay City News brings us the great news that Dwan has actually left the hospital and gone home to continue his recovery. Accoring to the blurb, local television station WNBC reported that Dwan "is partially paralyzed and does not remember or understand the attack" and that he "will be undergoing rehabilitation for at least a year."

In the meantime, some of you have been posting replies to the news that Emanuel Xavier was also beaten up in Brooklyn earlier this week or sending me private messages expressing your concern and care. I have been forwarding these to Emanuel and I am sure he appreciates all the love. I will keep you posted on any developments in the next few days.

[Image above is from a vigil organized this past June 28 by Make the Road by Walking outside Brookdale Hospital, where Dwan spent the last few months, and of his mother Valerie Prinez, holding a picture of her son, courtesy of Gay City News]

UPDATE: Verdict in the brutal beating of Dwan Prince (March 28, 2006)

Blabbeando in the news

Is it me or is Gay City News sporting a brand new logo? Spiffy, if you ask me.

That's not all, today's issue - already posted on-line - has an article by Andy Humm on the Reverend Ruben Diaz, Sr. (Ruben Diaz Agnostic on Mayor's Race) in which Diaz confirms that he will not be making an endorsement in the race, as he had told El Diario La Prensa a few days back as I reported earlier (the article also raises interesting issues about the Bloomberg campaign's refusal to answer questions on their own homophobic endorsers while trying to play up the tepid Diaz connection to Ferrer - so go read it now).

This week I have been a little stunned by how many people have come up to me and told me they've read my blog. Sometimes you don't realize how public a space this can actually be. It's fun to use PubSub to figure out if others are linking to your blog. Otherwise how was I to know that The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School took a liking to my post on Chile's LGBT pride?

This article, though, is the first time that Blabbeando has been quoted in the press although, alas, not by name. Pretty cool, no?

Now, remember that front-page New York Blade article which was purportedly about "New York's blogging elite" but actually turned out to bee one big free ad for the launch of Queerty? Well, both Queerty and Jossip have been down for a few hours. It's not that we are wishing them bad luck but what's up?

UPDATE: Glad to report that Queerty is back Though Jossip seems to still be on the blink. A legend on the Jossips site says:

As you've noticed, Jossip is offline due to some web hosting issues. We're as unhappy as you are, but leave the bitching to our hosting provider to us. Trust — they're getting enough from our mouth as it is. We hope to be back on shortly, and by "shortly" we mean yesterday. You'll be the first we tell, we promise. Thanks so much for your patience! Should you need to reach us for any reason, the email as always is tattle@jossip.com.